It turns out that I can still teach … sorta. It has been a while since I was responsible for leading a group of kids in anything schooly. And I fretted for some time over it all. We are in a small group of families that are studying “Story of the World” together. And we take turns “teaching” the kids. My turn was last Tuesday.
We had been studying the Vikings, Albert the Great, and William the Conqueror and covering that time period became my responsibility. So I had the kids make a Viking ship out of cardstock paper and we ate grapes (in honor of the Vikings discovering Vineland, aka North America) and dairy free scones. And my dear children took the time before our gathering to cut out numerous “Hagar the Horrible” comic strips to share with the other children.
It took a long time for the kids to complete their […]
Original post by themindfulhomeschool
I’ve been so blessed to have an amazing journey of learning through understanding and supporting my children as they find their passion and purpose in life. As I matured in this knowledge, my friend Rebecca (who I met on an on-line forum!) from Illinois and associated with the In-Home Conference for their state, asked if I would be interested in speaking. That was 2002. It would be the first step in the igniting of my passion regarding the right-brained learner. It was at this conference that my tentative steps at sharing the myriad of things that my children taught me about that learning style grew exponentially.
A few years ago, I decided I wanted to take the information about the right-brained learner further by writing a book. I wanted to be the means through which real change might occur in our current out-dated educational system regarding this learner. But I struggled. […]
Original post by applestars
I never push writing. I worry about it a lot — too much, I’m sure, but I never push. It’s scary for me, but I really want them to want to write.
Last night, Simon (age 11) came to me and said, “Mom, maybe as one of my learning things, I could write stories.”
I said, “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Yes! Yes! Yes! Please write stories!” “Gee honey, that’s a great idea.”
He went up to his room and wrote two full pages of an adventure of some sort of fight the hero is having with a huge monster. He is soooooo excited. He wants to become a famous author now.
Be still my heart!
Original post by Not June Cleaver
I am one of the authors over at Life Without School and the blog post I wrote went up and gone before I noticed to make mention of it. This was one of those posts that wrote itself. In my passion for the right-brained, creative learner, I have an adage that says: They love to learn; hate to be taught. I always joke at the beginning of my right-brained workshops that if a parent started with the traditional teaching methods and timeframes most of us were raised on in institutionalized schooling, we probably ran up against a brick wall fairly quickly: resistance!
In the unschooling world, people will claim that resistance means you are doing something poorly. But, after hearing the phrase, “I have a resistant learner” on my creative learner list for the umpteenth time, I took a closer look at the word “resistance” and discovered a communication tool. And […]
Original post by applestars
Does anyone else have a bunch of saved posts in the Post Writing section that you started and didn’t finish? I do. So, I decided to go through some of them and see what I found. Apparently, I had taken a blurb from a post I had written on a list somewhere and copied it in for further contemplation. So, here’s the blurb:
Ah, yes, the discovery process of what will and won’t work in your home with the schooling process What I learned is “schooling” doesn’t work well in a home unless you want to wear a “teacher’s cap”, which I didn’t. I wanted to be a parent-facilitator, which shifted the focus from “working on” to “working with”, sooo, I had to figure out a “learning process” for our family, not a “schooling process”. Does that make sense?
What that meant for me is to look for those learning moments […]
Original post by applestars
Who knew that boys would love the Little House on the Prairie series!?
We have listened to numerous recorded books this summer, among them “Matilda”, “The Witches”, and “Story of the World vol. 1″. Most recently, I got “Little House on the Prairie” and then “Farmer Boy.”
We started out of order. We should have had “Little House in the Big Woods” first. However, the kids didn’t mind a bit and even today when the first set was available, they chose not to listen to it. The next in the series, “On the Banks of Plum Creek” wasn’t available. I chose “The Cricket in Times Square” instead. Theodore was bummed. He said he liked listening to the Little House series because he liked the narrator (Cherry Jones). Later today, I did find the next book at a different library, but it is on cassette tape. Better that than nothing! They are really […]
Original post by Not June Cleaver
We have had a few moments over here that are notable. Today my dd was able to read the Chinese character for “mountain” on my Chinese tea box. All but the name of the tea, which by the way was “Lingtou Single-Bush Tea” (???), was written in kanji and she spotted a character that I had taught her months ago. That was so cool! They really are learning! And I am not just blowing air when I am talking to them. By golly, they must be listening to me! I felt somewhat like Helen Keller’s teacher when Helen started to talk. I taught her something! Now I gotta teach them more and am more inspired to fill their minds with as much as I can.
She also surprised me the other night when she recommended that we read this book that is actually part of her brother’s CM/AO curriculum. It is called American […]
Original post by themindfulhomeschool
He loves to bake. Usually, I do most of it and he helps. This time, I let Simon do the whole thing by himself. He made sugar cookies. I watched (and took pictures). We were so busy eating them afterwards, I forgot to take a picture of the result. They were rolled in colorful sugar sprinkles.
P.S. I got that shirt at Wal-Mart a couple of years ago and I’m still not exactly sure what it means, but it seemed appropriate (”School - the reason I don’t get up every morning”).
Original post by Not June Cleaver
I’m an unschooler at heart. I WANT to believe in unschooling. I’ve seen it work in people I know and love dearly. I have seen it in process with friends’ kids. I read about it and believe in it. But I cannot seem to shake the fear that it won’t work for MY kids.
But apparently I don’t actually believe in it! You should have seen me last night. I wish I had had my camera out. I was meandering back and forth from the bookshelves to the floor hauling books from the shelves and piling them in stacks around me — math, vocabulary, science, reading, literature, writing, and everything else. As I sat in the middle of my stacks, I couldn’t believe all the stuff I had purchased with high hopes of using it and them loving it. As I […]
Original post by Not June Cleaver
Since I am apparently incapable of writing anything of my own (sorry, I’m a very busy mom these days), take a minute to pop over to Stephanie’s blog Throwing Marshmallows for a great post about Michael Phelps, ADHD, and spelling.
Original post by Not June Cleaver
Two more weeks of Bible study have gone past since my last blog post. Where has the summer gone? Last week we talked about repentance and forgiveness. We need to walk in repentance….even moment by moment. The Biblical concept of repentance is not a one time event as is so many times seen today in evangelistic crusades. John the Baptist talked about bearing fruit in keeping with repentance. The Prophets, the Jesus and Paul, yes even the Torah all talk about turning back to God. Jesus told those in His hearing to repent for the Kingdom of God was at hand. In the 2nd Temple period in which Jesus lived the Kingdom of God was the place in which God was King. When we allow God to reign and rule in our lives then the Kingdom of God is here in us. We need to repent and give up our […]
Original post by Jenny
The trip to SD was an experience our kids will remember for a long time. Well, maybe not our youngest, our 3 1/2 yo, but our other children will remember touring a cave for the first time, the Beautiful Rushmore Cave; and seeing the beautiful Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse, among other things.
I am very proud of our children adapting to all the new situations and trying new things, esp. in the area of food. C did have her moments where she was unwilling to do things that the rest of us wanted to do, things like watching the 20 minute video at Crazy Horse but these were balanced out somewhat with the times she was willing to try new things and go with the flow. As a matter of fact, it seemed to be a “go with the flow” kind of vacation. And hopefully the lesson she and the rest of us learned about going […]
Original post by themindfulhomeschool
We went bird banding on Wednesday at the local nature center. It was difficult getting out of the house for the all day event for a number of reasons: A) H-man said that he didn’t want to go (?!); B) C-chan’s hair needed some serious de-tangling and C) I had to pack lunches for the four of us! Not something I am used to doing early in the AM! And my options were very limited, our lunch packing supplies were low, and I heard a little grumbling about the p & j! But we made it there. I drove the mini-van while practicing a little pranayama (!) and of course, once we got there we had a great time!
H-man and I were in a group separate from the older kids which we hadn’t planned for. The center had not informed us that the kids would be separated by age. Uggh. But it worked out fine […]
Original post by themindfulhomeschool
Elsie, at Elsie and Joe Deluxe, wrote a post called Keep Those Systems Off My Kids. I enjoyed the topic and it reminded me of a VERY important point about how I homeschool my children. She says this at the very end of the post:
But I am equally sure that there are teachers who slavishly follow the precepts of their chosen philosophies, to the point where they don’t even see the children in front of them. I might even say that there are more slavish followers than there are creative thinkers in these systems. I might even be pushed into saying that it is the very creation of a system of education that gives birth to slavish followers.
This is also very true of homeschooling philosophies, which she touches on throughout this post. But I really like how she summarizes that “the very creation of a system of […]
Original post by applestars
Warning: Not for the faint of heart
How could a good unschooler resist documenting the birth of kittens? Not us! We decided to take in a pregnant mother cat that had been hanging around our church for a while now. She is really sweet, and a good mommy.
The children were SO excited to be able to witness the experience. It happened on Thursday, April 24, 2008, starting around 7:00 p.m., when Missy (the name we think we’ve chosen for the momma) started acting strange and headed for a tight place. Luckily, I was able to convince her to birth in a laundry basket with her bed in the tub.
So, here’s the entire experience of the birth of Kitten #2 (an orange like her mommy):
Crowning:
Emergence:
Birth:
Taking care of the placenta:
Nourishment:
The full litter of four beautiful kittens (one black with orange/white, one gray with orange, one orange, […]
Original post by applestars
I consider myself very fortunate to have this awesome, talented, gorgeous yoga instructor teaching at our local fitness club. She is smart; she is knowledgeable; she is strict; she is beautiful; she is strong and she is one of the best yoga teachers I have ever had. I have learned so much from her and been so inspired by her.
Today I was able to go to one of her classes and I had a great workout. I even attempted bird-of-paradise and was able to do it rather well. Not perfectly, not even close, but well enough for Kristina, my teacher, to say, “Gorgeous, Lucy!”
I told my dh not too long ago that if it weren’t for yoga, I would not be HSing. Now I cannot say that with total certainty but I do know that yoga helps me relieve stress. It helps me stay clear-headed enough to deal with all the extra stressors that parenting […]
Original post by themindfulhomeschool
I came home yesterday and heard some instructional talk coming from behind the couch, which is William’s “quiet time area”. Hhmmm, what’s going on? I was excited to discover this:
I was excited for several reasons. First, there was a time when Eli eagerly sought out “pupils” for Lego instruction (and other related building materials) when he was about 11-12 years old. At the time, there were no takers. Now that he’s (recently) turned 17, he is not as interested in giving in this manner as he is so engrossed in his own passion pursuits (namely, computer programming). So, the fact that he was giving patiently of his time to his younger brother was exciting.
Second, there have been many attempts on my part to offer William, through his interests of castles and knights, to build the same with various building materials. Because […]
Original post by applestars
Randy Pausch answered this question and delivered the answer to his students at his final lecture. A lot of good stuff in it - and a wake up call for many.
var flashObject = new FlashObject(”http://www.youtube.com/v/ji5_MqicxSo”,”fm_ji5_MqicxSo”,”425″,”350″,”6″,”",”",”",”",”");
flashObject.write(”fo_targ_ji5_MqicxSo1685059751″);
For a shorter vision, go here: http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=ithct48cqw
HT: Tina at Starry Sky Ranch
Original post by taffyisme
We are in the fourth chapter of the book of Romans in my Sunday evening Bible study. It has taken me quite some time to write about this because I have been mulling over the the concepts of this study for the past several weeks. It is, at times, difficult to wrap my brain around Paul in his Hebraic context when my 21st century evangelical mind has been taught so differently. Such is the case in the concept of righteousness.
“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1) God takes us from having no ability to seek him, from doing nothing good, and He does the work in me. “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit”(1 Peter 3:18)
What is […]
Original post by Jenny
I have never even heard of the word before and now here I am in week three of a class studying, “The Biblical Doctrine of Salvation” with Tim Hegg at Torah Resource. I have learned many things from Mr. Hegg in the last five years and have gone to see him give a lecture on “What’s so New about the New Covenant” in St. Paul, Minnesota a few years ago. There have been many times when I thought that I would like to take one of the classes that he offered online but finances did not permit me to do so. Well, here I am. I am really hoping that I am not in over my head. I am learning so much from the class, but the things that are unnerving me just a bit are the midterm, the final and the 10-12 page research paper that are required should […]
Original post by Jenny
“The Torah of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul;
The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.
They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them Your servant is warned;
In keeping them there is great reward.” Psalm 19:7-11
Though I have not mentioned it, this week on the Biblical calendar is the Lord’s appointed time of the Feast of Booths or Sukkot. You can read about the Feast of Booths in Leviticus 23:34-36. But, it is the day that comes shortly after Sukkot that I want to write about today. This is the day called Simchat Torah or “Rejoicing in […]
Original post by Jenny
We are entering again into the time of the Biblical holidays that are called the “Fall Feasts”. The Feasts which are celebrated annually in the fall season are that of Rosh Hashanah, or the Feast of Trumpets, Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement and Sukkot or The Feast of Tabernacles. You can find a page in my sidebar in which I have written on the Biblical Holidays in the past.
Currently, we are in the Hebrew month of Elul which is used for a time of self-examination and preparation for the High Holidays. It is a time of repentance. I time to get closer to the L-rd.
I have been working through a personal workbook which I found on a website called Torah Family (the link will take you directly to the workbook) Repentance is a turning. It is a turning of my […]
Original post by Jenny
Yesterday was our last summer ladies’ Bible study for another year. We have been meeting with this particular group for five years now and it has been a life changing study for me. Some of these women I only see in this summer Bible study; some of the women were new this year. We come from very different backgrounds and with very different needs. The Lord is always present as we seek Him.
As I have mentioned in previous posts, this year we studied the journey of the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt through the wilderness to the Promised Land. So yesterday we asked the question, “What did God especially teach you this summer?”
I think that I learned above all that in a world that is looking for an experience with God our walk with Him is about relationship. Over and over He states in […]
Original post by Jenny
Just before they reached the Promised Land Moses gave the children of Israel some final instructions. How interesting that just at the time one of my Bible studies is studying this the Torah portions are in the Book of Deuteronomy where Moses gives these final instructions. During our time of worship at our house fellowship this week some Scriptures were highlighted that I would like to share here.
“The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, for the wild beasts would grow too numerous for you.” Deuteronomy 7:22 One thing that I noticed in particular is that this battle for the Promised Land is going to be something that the Israelites and God do together. God says repeatedly that He will destroy the enemy and then they will do it. But in […]
Original post by Jenny
(First of all I want to thank those of you who prayed. I am confident that I will not be in any kind of director position at the center although I am volunteering more hours. The Lord is good to lead and speak to His children. He takes care of the details and I know that He will provide the right person.)
We have only two weeks left in my Bible study on “From Slavery to the Promised Land”. Yesterday was our last day in the wilderness and next week we head into the promised land and we will be reading the Book of Joshua for that. Contrary to popular belief the Promised Land is not heaven and we don’t have to escape this world to get there. But, I will save that topic for another post because I wanted to write some […]
Original post by Jenny
« Previous Entries